JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – When a rare Gibson S-G guitar that's priceless to Karyn Locke's family was stolen from her home recently, she pulled out all the stops to make sure it was recovered.
"After we filed a police report, I jumped right on the computer, and it was very easy to think of that as the next step to get our guitar back," she said.
Locke posted a photo on Facebook of the stolen guitar, along with a plea for friends to spread the word and help find her prized possession, hoping someone would see it.
"It's almost like that commercial where they tell two friends and they tell two friends," she added.
The post was shared 2,000 times in two days.
"The people that you know who are friends with you on Facebook or followers of you on Twitter, they're more likely to share your own information, so you have an audience that cares about you and they want to see you get help. They want to see you get justice," explained Sgt. Eric Gripp, a law enforcement social media consultant.
News4Jax crime and safety analyst Gil Smith said the tactic of sharing video and pictures related to crime has worked well for law enforcement for years, and now regular citizens are willing to take matters into their own hands.
"They're not averse to taking a picture of something themselves, taking surveillance footage, a private camera they might have, putting it online themselves and just saying as a catch-all to their neighbors, 'Hey, this person broke into my car. Does anyone recognize them?'" said Smith.
Lauri Stevens, a social media strategist for law enforcement, said it's human nature to help.
"People want to see bad guys go to jail. They want safe communities," said Stevens. "With social media, now it's just so much easier to do that. We can sit with our phone on the couch and actually participate."
Stevens compared the new age crime stoppers to an online neighborhood watch. She said social media posted by the average person is especially helpful in missing persons cases or thefts.
"It's good to have these kinds of tools as a citizen to be able to solve some of these crimes ourselves," said Stevens.
But Smith cautioned people to be careful. He said victims don't want to share too much about their cases online, and he had a warning about sharing surveillance video.
"You can't just think that 'Oh, this is just somebody who stole a package,' and they might not be dangerous," Smith warned.
Smith said that when soliciting social media help to solve a crime, victims need to keep authorities as involved as possible, especially if someone contacts them, saying they have the stolen property.
In Locke's case, someone on Facebook reached out, saying they had the missing guitar.
"I contacted the police to let them know that somebody did have my guitar and asked the next steps that I needed to take, so I would remain safe," she said.
Police arranged a meeting to return the guitar to Locke's grateful family. She knows it's due to her online crime-stopping crew.
There are also sites, like CrimeSeen, which allow registered members to receive real-time alerts, letting them know when a report is filed in their area, or new apps, such as Nixie and Nextdoor, designed to raise awareness of local cases where users often post alerts or requests for tips about crimes.